Online Hacking Web game

[MatthewJWalls]

A real-time mmo version of something like http://www.introversion.co.uk/uplink/ (a "hacking" game).

I imagine it as basically a fake simulated internet, and every player starts off with a machine on that fake internet. The interface would have a map view, a terminal for commands, maybe like a fake "browser" like the GTA in-game internet where you can look up news and events. Make an in-game email inbox where you receive contracts from the game to execute, and also messages from other players.

The game environment (simulated internet) would be very low rez. Basically you have a graph made up of these kinds of nodes:

• ISP node
• Internet backbone node (links ISP nodes)
• Routers (come off of ISP nodes)
• Machines (Come off of ISP nodes or Router nodes)

Each node gets assigned an IP in a somewhat realistic fashion. The only information about nodes that is stored is IP, a file system, and a list of running "processes" like firewalls.

When you create a game account you become a machine on the fake internet. You can ping other machines in the system, connect using proxies and so on. Players can get hacked by each other.

Unfortunately I wouldn't recommend a programming/scripting element to begin with since that's going to be super hard to implement and probably is going to be expensive.

Maybe doing some things is easier/only possible with multiple players working together? So can encourage cooperate play.

[ninjabear]

It would have to be decked out like this

[MatthewJWalls]

Needs to be set up carefully to keep the game world fresh and uncluttered. If the fake internet isn't absolutely fucking massive, then players are going to turn it into a clusterfuck quickly. You'd need various sinks and sources and economic knobs to twiddle to keep the balance.

[MatthewJWalls]

Also need to think about monetisation.